


Muscle Memory

by RazleDazle



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 19:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9916694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RazleDazle/pseuds/RazleDazle
Summary: A fluffy celebration of the beautiful friendship of Rhett and Link.Their friendship can stand the test of time and weather any tribulation. It is them, as they stand apart from one another, but at the same time their muscles are tangled in the others’ muscles. It is not a feeling that is segmented to one part of themselves, locked in a box or grazing upon the surface. Deep down they hold a part of the other and they don’t care who knows it.





	

Their friendship is muscle memory, if nothing else. Rhett and Link, Link and Rhett, their dynamic is as smooth as breathing the sweet air that is slick with their scent. It is as easy as recalling the woody and wet scent of the forest or the melody of a favorite song. It is in the shared experiences that are intertwined amongst two bodies. Emotions of being young and free--swimming in creeks, chasing cows, endless discussions atop two rocks, of doing reckless things--car accidents and falling in and out of love -- usually with the same girls, and of being each others’ constant in the rainstorm of life. They are the other's home, safety found in the friendship and solidarity in their thoughts. 

 

Their bond is as effortless as driving the car to the other’s house and on to work together. It is in each brainstorming session that results in a million silly ideas -- none of which will turn into anything, but crying in laughter just the same. It is the simplicity of bending one’s knees and plopping into a seat inches away from the other and knowing this is where they belong. Where they have always belonged, under the spotlights, with cameras on them both, next to their friend. This feeling cutting into them deeply, down to their marrow. 

 

It is in their hearts, as the care overflows and spills out from their bodies and hands.  Fingertips that flutter out to grasp a shoulder. Palms that wave around to catch sight of the other’s hand in celebration. Bodies that sit inhumanely close as they converse, laugh and live their shared life atop the mountain they have built. Muscle memory, evident in the way they gravitate to the other, leaning in close, because they don’t know how to do anything else. It is not their minds that close the gap between them, but that of their cores.  And as a hand grazes or shoulders touch, the resulting shivers that shoot up their spines upon contact are comfortable and familiar. Theirs. Only theirs. 

 

The brotherhood is as easy as Link lifting his finger and lightly tapping it to Rhett’s arm. A tap that screams a million things: I love you, I am here for you, I remember you, I know. It is piece of their muscle memory that reminds them of who they were before this and who they want to be. It foretells where they are headed. But most importantly, it cries that they are in this life together.

 

A lifetime of accumulated years that have amassed a slew of minutes that fit snuggly to other’s seconds to create shared moments. Moments of growing bodies and gaining years. Time filled with getting taller and more defined, longer hair and leaner faces. But in the process of growing up, they also grew together. Their divided timelines becoming an increasingly distant figment that blended, bits of the other man mixed into the other’s fibers. One life now empty and forgotten without the other, because both halves are meaningless, but for the other’s presence. Their individual years are only important because the other was there to piece their memories into the empty slots of the other man’s mind. Memories that have melded to their forms, rooted deeply in their identity and as a part of them as the muscles that hold their bodies upright.  

 

Decades upon decades have done this to them as time has cemented their bond and hardened their resolve. There is nary a worry in their mind of the other not being there. Where one goes, the other is surely to follow suit. It has always been this way Rhett beside Link walking side by side in life. Their minds work in tandem, whispering to the other the dreams they wish to chase, the failures they need to weather and the success to rejoice in. And it feels as though they will continue on that path until the end of forever.  This path that they chose together feeling even more safe and solid, as the benefit of their years together course through their soft muscle tissue.

 

Their time has brought them here to this place, where they can find comfort in just the sound of the other’s steady breathing. Slowly inhaling the other’s admiration and exhaling their loyalty.  Love can be felt as they sit in a room and completely ignore all else because their devotion is a sentient being that inhabits the space between them.  They needn’t say a thing, for the human language has very small words in comparison to the immensity of their bond. It is a living and breathing thing that fills them up with gratitude and awe for the other, through weakness as well as in strength. Because they know, deep in their core that In order to love someone fully, you must accept them wholly, flaws and all. That fact has not gone past them, but it is no longer a consideration. It just is; a point of life. As a weakness shows, the other swoops in to conceal it. The idea doesn’t even pass their minds as they automatically catch the other man before he falls.  It is firmly held, deep down in their essence, the desire to be one another’s foundation as one man brushes away the other man’s failings, licks his wounds and builds him up again. It is constant, as it runs through their veins and spreads over their insides, no longer being conscious or deliberate. It is as unthinking as muscle memory. 

 

The years spent together are barely noticeable to them. It feels as if thirty years has flown by within a blink of an eye. But their lifetimes are in every etch on their faces and every blemish of their body. The faded scar on their palms is that of blood brothers. These crinkles around the eyes enumerate all the smiles and nights spent in laughter. The creases in the forehead illustrate the worry that they would be separated after high school -- a silly worry and one that never came to pass, but a deep-seated fear just the same. 

 

Tiny grooves criss-cross around their mouths. Creases that formed from every time they wrapped their lips around the other’s name. Each small wrinkle that represents the millions of Rhetts and millions of Links being breathed into the air and floating past the other’s ear. Each utterance, young and high, raspy and changing, deep and adult, cloaking them in warmth and replenishing their souls. Still, even now, they can feel the wonder of each other’s name. But they needn’t acknowledge it anymore. The feeling is fresh and ever present in each stretch of muscle in their throat, as if they had just yelled the other man’s name in triumph at a soccer game or cheered them on because of an impressive basketball shot. Names that are easy and familiar as the muscles of their minds are filled to the brim with the other’s voice, their laughter and sound of their tears.  

 

These muscle memories have combined two lifelines, building one atop the other. It seemed so easy. The fluidity of their lives felt natural as they became increasingly more entangled in the other. Their shared existence a natural phenomena that they needn’t analyze anymore, but still they do. They pick apart each grain of their friendship, break it down, look at it from all angles and build it into a firmer, longer lasting structure. The analysis is unhurried and authentic and the millions of seconds are easy to remember. The meaning of their shared devotion is a simple story that no longer needs to be told, but tell it and recall it they do. It is in their muscles, the dance they both have learned and perfected years ago. Each step, each dip and each hop has been memorized by their bodies. 

 

Because of this, their friendship can stand the test of time and weather any tribulation. They would love each other if they were blind. They could love each other even if they had lost all conscious thought. They will love each other as the fingers of death grip their souls and tear them from their bodies.  It is not a feeling that is segmented to one part of themselves, locked in a box or grazing upon the surface. Maybe it once was. But no longer. Now, It is deeply ingrained, swimming within their organs, riding along their neurons and hitching a ride in the oxygen that surges through them. 

 

It is real. It is natural. It is them, as they stand apart from one another, but at the same time their muscles are tangled in the others’ muscles. This lifelong connection vibrates through them, a feeling that is simple to them and complicated to the rest of the world. But that doesn’t enter their mind. Not anymore. They have long since stopped caring what the universe thinks of them as a duo.  Deep down they hold a part of the other and they don’t care who knows it. Rhett is Link and Link is Rhett. They are no longer a single person, but kindred spirits. Theirs is a friendship that is in every tendon and sinew that speaks of the exquisite feeling that is shared between them. It shouts that this is what they have always been and what they will always be, as they melt into each other’s grace and heart, allowing their muscles to speak the volumes of emotion that resonate within them.  

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you beautiful reader for reading, commenting and leaving kudos. Any feedback makes my day! <3
> 
> Find me on [Tumblr](http://razle-dazle.tumblr.com/)


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